It's got to be some kind of bug, no one is really sure at the moment, nor can receive a solid reply about it yet. The materia melding process and itemization make little sense when side-by-side. For example: I'm supposed to be able to craft high-end AF type gear for all of my crafting classes, but yet I can barely eke out enough base stats to make it, let alone HQ reliably. Then, to make the matter worse, the materia slots won't even allow you to max out the tier IV materia, and reduces the contribution for all but a few slots on said gear all the way down to TIER ONE. Yes, tier one.

If the piece is maxed out fine, I can understand stat caps; but when a piece has only one major craft stat on it, like control, and then tells me the craftsmanship+ materia will contribute 0....I say 'What?'

It's pretty bassackwards at the moment.